Study Desk

She said, "God has given me a fine gift. Now surely Jacob will honor me, because I have given him six sons," so she named him Zebulun.

Laban said to him, "If I have pleased you, please stay. I know the Lord has blessed me because of you.

Jacob answered Laban, "I left without telling you, because I was afraid you would take your daughters away from me.

Rachel said to her father, "Father, don't be angry with me. I am not able to stand up before you because I am having my monthly period." So Laban looked through the camp, but he did not find his idols.

It was also called Mizpah, because Laban said, "Let the Lord watch over us while we are separated from each other.

Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob. Your name will now be Israel, because you have wrestled with God and with people, and you have won."

Then the sun rose as he was leaving that place, and Jacob was limping because of his leg.

So even today the people of Israel do not eat the muscle that is on the hip joint of animals, because Jacob was touched there.

Jacob said, "No! Please! If I have pleased you, then accept the gift I give you. I am very happy to see your face again. It is like seeing the face of God, because you have accepted me.

So I beg you to accept the gift I give you. God has been very good to me, and I have more than I need." And because Jacob begged, Esau accepted the gift.

Jacob's sons answered Shechem and his father with lies, because Shechem had disgraced their sister Dinah.

The brothers said to them, "We cannot allow you to marry our sister, because you are not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us.

So Shechem quickly went to be circumcised because he loved Jacob's daughter. Now Shechem was the most respected man in his family.

There Jacob built an altar and named the place Bethel, after God, because God had appeared to him there when he was running from his brother.

Esau and Jacob's belongings were becoming too many for them to live in the same land. The land where they had lived could not support both of them, because they had too many herds.

His brothers said, "Do you really think you will be king over us? Do you truly think you will rule over us?" His brothers hated him even more because of his dreams and what he had said.

So she took off the clothes that showed she was a widow and covered her face with a veil to hide who she was. Then she sat down by the gate of Enaim on the road to Timnah. She did this because Judah's younger son Shelah had grown up, but Judah had not made plans for her to marry him.

When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, because she had covered her face with a veil.

Judah recognized them and said, "She is more in the right than I. She did this because I did not give her to my son Shelah as I promised." And Judah did not have sexual relations with her again.

When Joseph was put in charge of the house and everything Potiphar owned, the Lord blessed the people in Potiphar's house because of Joseph. And the Lord blessed everything that belonged to Potiphar, both in the house and in the field.